QFA Pensions common mistakes
QFA Pensions · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Treating the State Pension (Contributory) as a flat-rate payment and ignoring the total-contributions and yearly-average calculation that determines the actual weekly rate.
Candidates learn the headline maximum rate and assume everyone with enough contributions gets it, overlooking band-based averaging and home-caring/credited periods.
What to do instead
Work through 2–3 full averaging examples (total contributions divided by years since entry, with homemaker credits) and state the resulting band rate before moving on.
Conflating the State Pension (Contributory) with the means-tested State Pension (Non-Contributory) when answering eligibility questions.
Both are 'the State pension' and share qualifying-age language, so candidates apply contributory rules to a means-tested scenario or vice versa.
What to do instead
Before answering, classify the scenario by test: contribution record = contributory; means test = non-contributory. Write the test next to the answer.
Applying the wrong Revenue maximum funding threshold by using the salary-and-service formula when the question requires the percentage-of-salary limit (or vice versa).
Both limits appear in funding material and candidates default to the more familiar one without checking what the question asks or the member's age/service profile.
What to do instead
For each funding question, first identify member age, service and whether it is a DC or DB arrangement, then select and name the specific limit before calculating.
Mixing up the tax treatment of contributions, fund growth and drawdown (e.g. stating growth is taxed annually or that the lump sum is fully taxable).
Candidates carry over general income-tax intuition and lose track of the exempt-growth and approved-retirement-fund concepts that apply to Irish pension vehicles.
What to do instead
Build a three-column table (contributions / growth / benefits) for each product type and answer from the table rather than from memory.
Quoting the retirement lump sum tax-free threshold and the excess-rate treatment from an outdated figure or the wrong lifetime cap.
Thresholds have changed over time and candidates blend the standard threshold with the higher lifetime limit and the marginal-rate band above it.
What to do instead
Memorise the current standard threshold, the upper lifetime limit and the rate applying between them as a single ordered sequence, and cite the sequence in every lump-sum answer.
Confusing an ARF with an AMRF, including the conditions for accessing the AMRF and the deemed-distribution rules.
The two products sound alike and are often discussed together, so the access conditions and imputed-distribution treatment get swapped.
What to do instead
Write a one-line definition of each (ARF = drawdown with imputed distribution; AMRF = locked until access conditions met) and check the scenario against both lines.
Approving a transfer without checking the statutory transfer conditions (preserved benefit, receiving arrangement type, statutory entitlement to transfer).
Candidates focus on the destination scheme's attractiveness and skip the eligibility gate that determines whether a transfer may proceed at all.
What to do instead
Use a fixed checklist for every transfer question: benefit type, member status, receiving arrangement, and any statutory restriction, before discussing suitability.
Treating the advice/suitability process as a paperwork step rather than identifying the required fact-find, suitability assessment and disclosure obligations.
The regulatory steps feel administrative, so candidates skip naming them and answer only on product choice.
What to do instead
For advice questions, list the required process stages in order (fact-find, suitability, disclosure, record-keeping) and tie each to the specific product recommended.
Applying the wrong preservation or vesting rule to an occupational scheme member who leaves service, e.g. assuming immediate access to the full benefit.
Preservation rules depend on length of service and scheme type, and candidates apply a single rule to all leavers.
What to do instead
For each leaver scenario, state qualifying service, the preserved benefit entitlement and the options (deferred, transfer, refund where applicable) explicitly.
Ignoring the trustee governance and funding-standard obligations (scheme funding standard, risk reserve, funding proposals) when asked about DB scheme duties.
Candidates answer governance questions on member communication and investment alone and omit the statutory funding and reporting duties.
What to do instead
Maintain a short trustee duty list (funding standard, funding proposal, actuarial reporting, member disclosure) and check each governance answer against it.